Holiday Memories With Michael Feinstein

by Grant Jackson

This week, Piano Jazz celebrates the season with a set of holiday favorites, as well as some surprises never heard on the program before. Guest host Michael Feinstein performs and presents tunes from the Piano Jazz archive, as well as some treasures from his own extensive collection of recordings by the masters of American popular song.
Photo: Randee St. Nicholas/Concord Music Group

A singer and pianist, Feinstein is a consummate performer of the Great American Songbook. A gifted player, he's also a perfectionist when it comes to interpreting the original intent of songwriters. He once worked as Ira Gershwin's archivist, and is constantly searching for forgotten tunes and forgotten lyrics to well-known numbers. Feinstein also performs a popular holiday revue at his club, Feinstein's at Loews Regency in New York.

This special Piano Jazz sleigh ride sets off with George Shearing and Marian McPartland's lively duet of "Let It Snow." And Feinstein follows with a performance of one of his favorite holiday tunes. A contemplative composition by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, "The Secret of Christmas" was written for Bing Crosby in the 1959 film Say One For Me.

This holiday celebration heads back in time to 1936 Chicago with Fats Waller and his Rhythm Makers performing "Swingin' Jingle Bells." Waller's fingers fly across the keys, and he turns in a loose, manic vocal performance, punctuating the other soloists with "Y'all come on with it!" Another unmistakable voice in the world of jazz and standards, Blossom Dearie uses her trademark girlish-yet-worldly delivery to great effect in "Liz, Ralph, and Calvin," as she sings the praises of designer labels she'd like to see under the tree on Christmas morning.
Listen Program on: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/24/132270959/holiday-memories-with-michael-feinstein

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